Rating of
4/4
Requiem for a Dream review
Daniel Corleone - wrote on 10/16/11
A film about 4 central characters with an addition: Sara Goldfarb (Ellen Burstyn), son Harry (Jared Leto), Harry’s girlfriend Marion Silver (Jennifer Connelly), and Harry’s friend Tyrone C. Love (Marlon Wayans). Sara gets a phone call that she is invited to a TV show. She would like to good so she tries on her rusty red dress, unfortunately it doesn’t fit so she tries dieting by taking the advice of her friend thru a Doctor who gave her colored pills. Trouble starts after a gang war between the Blacks and Italians break loose, with Tyrone’s source in the middle. Harry becomes a heroin addict after Tyrone introduces a very strong drug. He entices Marion to find a way to get the money for them to get back on track. Tyrone sleeps with a girl but reminisce the images of his mother. Some noteworthy quotes: Sara – “In the end it's all nice.” Harry – “Somebody like you can really make things all right for me.”
Watching this more than once will make you fully appreciate the film’s brilliance. It starts a bit slow but picks up when Sara gets the call and after Tyrone and Harry earn some money thru a source for drugs. The style of direction was artistic while the soundtrack was complementary to most of the scenes. I really enjoyed the soundtrack used on the movie. A myriad of techniques such as rapid cuts, time-lapse photography, long tracking shots and split screens were well utilized. Ellen Burstyn was amazingly effective. In my perception, the main subject was addiction. Sara was obsessed in becoming thin whatever the cost just to be on the TV show, Harry to distribute drugs and earn money to put up a shop with his girlfriend, Marion in the end fell to the prey of money’s greed and Tyrone longing to be loved again by his mother, thus spending it with strangers. It clearly shows how excess can turn against you, much like Scarface or Trainspotting. Requiem for a Dream may have a depressing premise, but it is one of the most realistic, authentic masterpieces that involve drugs and addiction.
